


From Whence Do Her Sorrows Grow

by Phrenotobe



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, Shakespeare, pentameter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-27 00:48:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,572
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7596817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phrenotobe/pseuds/Phrenotobe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nepeta:<br/>I walk here as I please; do as I please,<br/>Not for you do I climb the boughs and preen<br/>In perfect elegance like my mother.<br/>The claws o'er my hands are made for war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	From Whence Do Her Sorrows Grow

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fleece](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleece/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Melilotus albus, or, Sweetness](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4472258) by [fleece](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleece/pseuds/fleece). 



With home now ours, though we be change'd by fate  
Jade walking through the valley, shadow seen  
at her side of a predator. But fie!  
of late none pray to a fallen rime-god's gleam  
and grassy morning dew. But we walk on.  
Across the fields, as orchards flow'r and wilt  
An alien's claws gleam in evening sun;  
a shadow- her voice cadencing to lilt  
and curl'd complaints awrithe from her rough tongue.  
Perhaps a romance red or black may bloom  
Our heroes two, now asked where they belong.  
Will peace win, or antagonism loom?  
In this the country's tale, our fates align  
Heart's rogue and witch; divorced from modern time.

 

SCENE 1: A SPRING EVENING IN A MEADOW.

Jade:  
We have landed. Do you see our witness?

Nepeta:  
There are no witnesses to our descent.  
Purrhaps they have all gone inside to sleep?

Jade:  
There is no town here for them to live in  
Only the fields and glades all around us  
And o’er far behind, I see mountains

Nepeta:  
Mountains and rivers, trees all around us  
And with them adventpurrs - This is our prize! 

Jade:  
If this is a prize, I do not want it. 

Nepeta:  
You look at a new game grub in the maw  
Just seeing the worst of everything.

Jade:  
And this is the game’s rightful gift to us?  
Stranded alone, both found in nowhere.

Nepeta:  
Give me two days in which to caper free  
And then I will follow you wherever.

Jade:  
Then I will go to the nearest township  
And in it I will find my place to live.

EXEUNT JADE.

Nepeta:  
Oh, nyan! Why do you make me leave so soon!

EXEUNT NEPETA (STOMPING.) 

 

SCENE 2: BY THE TREES

[SINGING]  
Nepeta:  
I walk here as I please; do as I please,  
not for you do I climb the boughs and preen  
in perfect elegance like my mother.  
the claws o'er my hands are made for war.

Jade:  
But no! You are more vagabond than queen.  
We stick to the hedges, the shade of scrub.  
I have no home save what i build at night  
among spring green and dry yellow grasses  
and your laughter at my bedtime folly  
haunts the distance between night and sunrise  
Your eyes glow with sky's light burned out  
and yet you do not help me settle down.

Nepeta:  
So you walk blind into trees and nettles  
away from mountain lions and their song.

Jade:  
A mountain lion does not sing or dance  
at least, i think, not in that odd manner 

Nepeta:  
But they do! Many who visit the hills  
Come across their habits and attention  
Ay, but lions despise those who disturb  
the loud fumbles of their romantic purr-

Jade:  
Hold, Nepeta, did your cheeks bloom bright green? 

Nepeta:  
I mean, I didn't say anything! just-  
to bed, you! right now, immediately 

Jade: (IN SOLILOQUY)  
She speaks as though I do not understand  
We here might plot distances by these stars  
Still i take to slumber as i am told  
To not incite further arguments here. 

 

SCENE 2: AT DAWN

 

Nepeta:  
Wake up, and dawn arrives! Swiftly, before  
the sky is clouded over. Why so slow?  
We will lose sight of our destination.  
I do not like it when I am made lost.

Jade:  
The day does not hide the stars from my sight  
Only blanket them in opaque atmospheres  
In my heart I know them well, graphed above my head  
in far-off firmament they are fixed  
as much as they can be, for angular rotation  
galileo still says the world goes 'round. 

Nepeta:  
Then will we be off? I spy ahead a stream  
And within it will surely be succor.

Jade:  
Our goal is the city over yonder.  
We will travel through the orchards and farms  
across the fields and over the hedges.  
I go onward to civilization. 

Nepeta:  
You are a soft creature, embracing towns.  
The out of doors provides all I should need.  
If you are determined, I will follow.

Jade:  
I am not so soft! Out here there is naught.  
Cities are where humanity is found.

EXEUNT JADE. 

Nepeta:  
There is naught in cities for aliens!  
Spiracles freckle up and down my neck  
And the coat I wear is of far-off make.

EXEUNT NEPETA.

 

SCENE 3: UPON A FARM 

Jade:  
Patience, Nepeta; go quietly now  
As we walk on private land  
every step must have precision  
else we draw the master's ire

Nepeta:  
Land is land, no master shall own it  
or else I will wrestle down these lords  
give me a peach to sate this thirst of mine  
and I will re-plant it, so to grow one.

Jade:  
One for us both, perhaps. Surely we're safe.  
After all, what harm might then come to pass?

Nepeta:  
Meowsters and kings, aliens and knaves  
Lo! I hear a sound! The huntress departs. 

EXEUNT NEPETA.

ENTER: OLD WOMAN. 

Old Woman:  
i give to others that which was given  
to me. opportunists, flatterers, all  
those who partake in foolish thievery.  
You will visit my home and with your work  
going forward, repair what I have lost.

Jade:  
Grandmother, I will do as you ask me to  
I follow you willingly past the trees  
laden around with such inviting fruit.  
For how long will I live in this farmland?

Old Woman:  
Beware the foxes who bite through wire and  
the strange cats that visit our coops and hens.  
Use your long reach to pull down the boughs.  
I command you stay until season's end. 

Jade:  
Agreed, I will stay until season’s end.

SCENE 4: INSIDE A FARMHOUSE

Old Woman:  
Mind the cooling pie upon the sill.  
At first I thought you were a village thief  
But presently we are of good accord.  
You have taken time working and saved mine  
I will always call you daughter henceforth

Jade:  
You are too kind to aid a wanderer  
I have set the coops with contraptions and  
Spent my days at rest thinking of this farm

Old Woman:  
‘Tis season’s end and I will not keep you  
But one last time before you take your leave  
There is a box, and some money beside  
Pray take the fruit you took tenfold with you  
As a measure of my highest esteem.

EXEUNT OLD WOMAN.

Nepeta:  
Psst, Jade! Is she gone now? May I see you?

Jade:  
Yes, Nepeta, she has gone. Sit with me.

Nepeta:  
This house of hyoomins brings no pleasure.  
I may not hunt chickens in their houses,  
Or have trees shaken down for edibles!  
Even our friendship has stalled in this place.

Jade:  
That is not true one bit, and you know it.

Nepeta:  
Then leave with me, and do not say goodbye!  
Only maybe you will be back sometimes  
A note if you think it is important  
I will meet you at the end of the drive. 

EXEUNT NEPETA;  
JADE WRITES DOWN A NOTE AND PICKS UP THE BOX.  
EXEUNT JADE.

SCENE 5: A ROAD. 

Nepeta:  
My sharp eyes spot a tasty prize left there  
The end of a coyote’s wander  
I’ll dispose of it, I do a service  
So the husk will be of value to me.

Jade:  
I do know you for a puck, Nepeta.  
But the coyote is like a brother  
To Becquerel, the parent I once had

Nepeta:  
Raised by a wolf, you say? Parents do try.  
So you wished for a small yard to live in  
And a skyline of houses, not of trees? 

Jade:  
Dear is my dog’s memory to my heart  
What if it was a cat in place of it?

Nepeta:  
Ffft. Well, I suppose your point is made. 

 

SCENE 6: A COFFEE SHOP

ENTER JADE, LOOKING FURTIVE.  
BEHIND HER, NEPETA HIDING, CONSPICUOUSLY. 

Jade:  
To shred a bonus is to waste it all  
Better that it circulates around us  
Rather than the cut evaporation  
Of paper tatters better given to  
A tip jar. Look to those in greater need.

Nepeta:  
Hurry up! I think somebody has seen  
My grey skin, and will any minute alarm.

Jade:  
As you wish, as you wish! Ay, what a plague.  
And now we retreat to go back and home.

Nepeta: (To herself)  
Back and home? Did I hear Jade say that right?

 

SCENE 7: A RIVERBANK

Nepeta:  
I think that perhaps when we are spoken of  
they will talk of spring and new beginnings  
Or maybe just the floods and frost of us  
When we caper wild among the reed beds.

Jade:  
It is quiet outside, and calm, I do admit.  
The stars here are within my sight  
Bears and lions do not speak as parents do;  
But with you I find my calm moments.

Nepeta:  
Will you stay here in this home together?  
My bright eyes will light up the dark for you  
And in the soft grass I will make a nest  
Somewhere to keep us warm and in safety.

Jade:  
I thought this your home, not mine,  
That I had been delivered to no paradise  
And even all the while following you  
I then explored the fullness of its reach.  
So if your home is here, in this garden  
then so will it be mine to live by you. 

Nepeta  
I have no earth, and wander as is my right  
But with you there is peace and paradise  
Mother taught me everything I know  
To hunt and to fight; to live and to breathe  
Here breath is easy - and with you, better.

**Author's Note:**

> Writing in pentameter in a heatwave was an experience I'll probably not forget.


End file.
